History

Excerpts from A History of The Riverdale Yacht Club by Ruben P. Mendez (former RYC member), 2008

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The Riverdale Yacht Club was incorporated on 2 March 1931,to establish, maintain and operate a yacht club…indoor and outdoor tennis or squash-tennis courts, boathouses and boat landing, and suitable clubhouses,  bath houses, swimming pools, and other accommodations and facilities for the use and convenience of the members. The time was the start of a difficult decade for the the United States: It was only sixteen months since the initial stock market crash of 29 October 1929, and, in retrospect, it was the start of the Great Depression. The formation, despite these hard times, of a recreational and sports club was due to the efforts of the original directors and other well-to-do Riverdalians who wanted a place in the neighborhood where they and their families could get together, relax, swim, play tennis, and go sailing. Partly because of the economic conditions of the time, however, the Riverdale Yacht Club started with an uncertain financial footing. It was envisaged from the very beginning that the Yacht Club would be family oriented - that its membership would consist primarily of families or couples. It opened its first season in the summer of 1932, with a membership of 46 families, who were recruited by the directors in the course of the preceding months. The Yacht Club was located at its present site but had a smaller area since this was before the grounds were expanded by landfill. The Club’s finances were shaky: Its initial budget - $30,751 - was far larger than its resources. The sole source of operating income lay in annual dues of $50 and initiation fees of $100, of which $50 was payable upon election and the same amount callable if deemed necessary by the Board of Governors. The RYC in its early years depended on the largesse of the Perkins and Freeman families, who among other things owned most of the Club’s premises.

 

The RYC, nevertheless, was chartered and officially recognized as a Yacht Club - a standing that continues to this day. Its burgee (the usually triangular identifying flag of a yacht club flown by the boats of members) was designed by the Freemans’ oldest child, Dorothy (“Dodo”), then a girl of seventeen. The burgee design was approved by a special committee appointed by the Commodore, and registered and officially adopted in June 1933. When the Freemans, later in the 1930s, sailed their schooner, the Blue Goose, into Boothbay Harbor, Maine, it proudly displayed the RYC burgee atop its mainmast.

 

In its early days a number of members owned sailboats, but they were moored next to the Yacht Club at best only intermittently. Jack Cunningham, the Club’s third Commodore, had a 100-foot schooner, the Sea Gypsy - the largest in greater New York Harbor - which he tried morning permanently at the Yacht Club for a about a year. He finally gave up and moored it mainly on the Long Island Sound. He used to take various members sailing up and down the Hudson River and at time to Long Island Sound or New York Harbor (narrowly defined) by the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan. The Yacht Club kitchen would prepare food to eat on the yacht so that the Captain, passengers and crew could go on day trips. The Freemans’ schooner, the Blue Goose, was occasionally moored at the Yacht Club for special events - “a memorable sight all lit up on a dance night,” according to one witness. The Freemans, however, kept their boat in Maine. The Dodges had a motor launch in which they took members and school children on birthday parties and picnics, but they had their own dock. The Dennisons had a Morgan 34 sloop and cruised every summer to Martha’s Vineyard, but they kept their boat at the American Yacht Club in Rye. There was a proposal in 1936 that the Yacht Club charter a yacht, but this was never followed up. The river’s Mahican name, Mahican-netuk, means “great waters in constant motion.” The early sailboats were constantly knocked about by the swift and changing currents. This convinced the sailor members to moor their boats elsewhere - in marinas in Maine, Long Island, City Island, or Westchester. And so, the boats used on the Hudson by the early members were mainly kayaks, sculls and shells, which could be beached easily after use. The RYC became a “yacht less yacht club” and remained so for a long time.

 

The RYC had modest, expedient beginnings but also unrivaled physical advantages: a rustic setting although located in New York City, a picturesque view, and a site right on water’s edge. At the time of its founding, the site of the Riverdale Yacht Club consisted of tracts of land which, although contiguous, were owned separately by the family of George Walbridge Perkins and what was then the New York Central Railroad. George W. Perkins (the elder) died in 1920. The portion of the Perkins’ land occupied by the Riverdale Yacht Club was initially lent and then leased by his widow, Evelina Ball Perkins. It was not until 1959 and 1960 that the Club bought the land and water rights from Mrs. Perkins, who was the RYC’s most generous supporter and an unsung philanthropist in the Riverdale area. The southern part of the RYC was the proper of the New York Central Railroad …. In 1962, the RYC purchased the land from the Railroad company.

 

The present clubhouse used to be where the swimming pool now is. It was the stationhouse for the Riverdale stop of the New York Central Railroad, where one bought tickets and waited for the trains. The station house, which was built in 1914, was much smaller than the present clubhouse, consisting only of what is the clubhouse reception area.  Around 1930, the train station was moved north and further west to its present location, where a new station house was built. The old stationhouse was moved to its present location, where it was rotated 90 degrees and is the core of the present clubhouse. Over the years, additions to the stationhouse (living room) were constructed, the glass enclosed dining room, the deck, the patio on the southern side, the kitchen and storage room, among other improvements. The clubhouse extension housing the Steward’s quarters, squash court, bathrooms, storage rooms, and kitchen were probably built sometime in 1931 or shortly before. The tennis court next to the extension, the primitive fencing along the river, and the lawn were also built around that time. In 1960, the southern part of the club came into existence through landfill – the land south of the clubhouse and west of the boathouse; and practically the entire area south of the boathouse including the parking lots, the paddle tennis court, and the southern beach, which also serves as a boat landing. The landfill came from the excavation of land in order to build the Skyview Apartments. In the ensuing years, many improvements have been made to the buildings and grounds that have been instrumental in enhancing the enjoyment of all club members.

More information about the Riverdale Yacht Club can be found in the book A History of The Riverdale Yacht Club by Ruben P. Mendez, 2008